Murray Wins

Though hundreds of thousands of votes remain to be counted, Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington has now opened up a substantial lead of almost 50,000 votes, making it all but statistically impossible for Dino Rossi overcome her lead. Since about half of the remaining votes come from King County, where Murray won overwhelmingly, Rossi would need to take roughly 2/3 of the vote in the rest of the state to win. To date, his margin outside of King County is 53%. The Seattle Times has now called the race for Murray. The Associated Press has also called the race for Murray.

This marks the third straight statewide defeat for Rossi, who ran for governor in 2004 and 2008.